No secretary for Bhopal gas tragedy victims panel, high court told

The monitoring committee set up to carry medical surveillance of Bhopal gas victims requested the Madhya Pradesh high court on Thursday to nominate any person to replace the director of medical education as secretary of the panel.

bhopalUpdated: Feb 20, 2015 16:51 IST

HT Correspondent Hindustan Times

The monitoring committee set up to carry medical surveillance of Bhopal gas victims requested the Madhya Pradesh high court on Thursday to nominate any person to replace the director of medical education as secretary of the panel.

The monitoring committee is chaired by retired Judge VK Agrawal.

In January last year, the committee had communicated to the court that the DME was preoccupied with the official work and was unable to coordinate between the committee and the state government and participate in the meetings.

The request came after the panel found that no person was nominated in place of the DME as secretary.

Though the state government had submitted in the high court on January 20 last that some other responsible person in place of DME has already been nominated as secretary and convener of the monitoring committee.

The committee’s requisition letter of February 18, however, states no other person has been nominated to replace DME.

The committee said Dr DC Agrawal had been designated to act as coordinator of the monitoring committee on a part time basis. Agrawal appeared before the bench comprising chief justice AM Khanwilkar and justice RS Jha on Thursday as the lawyers continue to abstain from the court of chief justice.

The copy of the commission’s requisition letter is available with Rajesh Chand, counsel for petitioners Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sangathan and others.